Editorial: Former boxer finds winning combination

Monday

Jun 29, 2009 at 12:01 AMJun 29, 2009 at 5:16 AM

Mike Ohan of Holbrook, Mass., is a man who in the course of his boxing career has rubbed shoulders (literally, when in a clinch) with some of the biggest names in the industry and yet his recipe for happiness centers on God, family and chickens.

Editor’s note: Readers often comment that there should be more good news in the paper. While it’s true that there’s more than enough bad news to go around, we will highlight some of the many good news stories that appear on our pages on a regular basis.

Few of us go through life without thinking – occasionally or obsessively – that we’re missing out on something better.

Even those who apparently have it all can’t resist reaching for something more.

That’s why reading about someone like Mike Ohan of Holbrook, Mass., is such a centering experience.

Here’s a man who in the course of his boxing career has rubbed shoulders (literally, when in a clinch) with some of the biggest names in the industry and yet his recipe for happiness centers on God, family and chickens.

“I am a rich man because I have my wife; I have my children; I believe in God, and I have my chickens,” Ohan said.

The boxer-turned-chicken farmer was featured in Wednesday’s Ledger on the same day we began reporting the saga of Mark Sanford, the South Carolina governor with presidential ambitions whose political and personal lives were flattened when he admitted having an affair with a woman in Argentina.

Sanford’s is one of countless examples of people at the top of their game led astray by the lure of love, lust or loot.

But Ohan? He says he savors the peace and quiet of his backyard, where the hands that once raised welts on opponents’ faces now gather the delicate eggs produced by the more than 80 chickens that roam his land.

The one-time sparring partner of Marvelous Marvin Hagler retired in 1995 with a 15-5-2 record. Today, he wears a T-shirt that says “undisputed chicken.”

“There’s no profit in this, really,” Ohan said of egg farming. “(But) there’s a lot of profit in my mind.”

It’s obvious at least two thing Ohan learned in the ring have carried over to his new life. He appreciates the people in his corner and knows you don’t have to be at the top of the card to be a champion.